In Glendale, the Nashville Predators scored three times in the first period for a 3-0 lead, and then held off the Coyotes for a 4-2 in on Saturday night.
Juuse Saros made 38 saves in the Preds win.
“I think there’s no better goalie in the world than him. Every night, he’s giving us a chance to win,” Nashville’s Roman Josi (goal) said. “It’s kind of unbelievable how consistent he is. I think he’s almost underappreciated.”
The Predators are 11-1-1 in their 13 matches and improved to 23-11-2.
“I give the leaders of the team a lot of credit, they did a good job and I think the team, in general, was certainly ready to play,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “I thought the guys did what they needed to do tonight to win the hockey game.”
Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse tried to rally the Coyotes back in the third period.
“I think the problem is the way we started, we didn’t play well in the first period,” Arizona head coach Andre Tourigny said. “We showed a lot of character and a lot of pushback, but when you trail 3-0 against a first-position team, it’s not that easy mentally.”
Arizona dropped to 7-23-3.
“That first period wasn’t up to our expectations of what we want night in and night out,” Arizona’s Andrew Ladd. “We were way too passive in all parts of our game and allowed them to take control of the puck.”
Nashville’s three-goal, first period outburst was courtesy of goals from Mattias Ekholm,Yakov Trenin, and Tanner Jeannot.
“We wanted to make sure we played a good game, and I thought we came out and played well in the first period,” Josi said. “I think we took our foot off the gas and they made a push, but we found a way to win it.”
Karel Vejmelka made 25 saves in the Coyotes loss.
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